Chapter One

IMAGER IS EVERYTHING
SECTOR THREE,11:00 P.M.
TUESDAY,MARCH 2,2021

Like a relentless boxer, rain beat down on the city, first
jabbing with sharp needles, then smacking Seattle with huge
fat drops that hit like haymakers, the barrage punctuated by
the ominous rumble of thunder and the eerie flash of lightning.

An unmarked black car drew to a stop in a rat-infested
Sector Three alley, the rain rattling the metal roof like
machine-gun fire. Two men in dark suits climbed out, to be
instantly drenched, though neither seemed to notice. Each
wore a radio earplug with a short microphone bent toward
his mouth.

Sage Thompson-the man who'd emerged from the passenger's
side-was relieved that the headsets, at least,
seemed to be waterproof. In their coat pockets, each man
carried one of the new portable thermal imagers that, just
this week, had become standard equipment. Thompson-
barely six feet, almost skinny at 180 pounds-wondered if
water-tightness was among the gizmo's various high-tech
bells and whistles.

Water sluiced down the alley in a torrent that seemed to
express the sky's anger, eventually bubbling over the edge of
a rusty grate maybe ten yards in front of them. Thompson
was forced to jump the stream and his feet nearly slid out
from under him as he landed and bumped into a triangle of
garbage cans, sending them crashing into each other, creating
a din that rivaled the storm's, his hands flying wide to
help maintain his balance. Then his hands dropped back to
his sides, the one holding his flashlight clanging off the imager
in his coat pocket, the other moving to make sure his
pis